A person cools off in spraying water from a fire hydrant in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pa., on Tuesday, July 6, 2010. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Many places across the Northeast broke record highs on Tuesday as the hottest temperatures so far of this heat wave were measured. Widespread triple-digit heat was endured along the Interstate 95 corridor.
Underneath a large dome of high pressure, widespread triple-digit heat was experienced from southern New England to central Virginia on Tuesday. Highs in the 90s were recorded elsewhere across the Northeast.
Tuesday's blazing heat led to numerous record highs being set.
All three reporting stations in New York City not only cracked the century mark, but set new record highs. The city's Central Park topped out at 103 degrees, breaking the old record of 101 degrees from 1999.
Temperatures have not been that hot in New York City's Central Park since August 9, 2001.
A sampling of the other record highs broken on Tuesday is given below with the previous records in parenthesis.
--Baltimore, Md.: 105 degrees (101 degrees from 1999)
--Wilmington, Del.: 103 degrees (98 degrees from 1999)
--Newark, N.J.: 103 degrees (102 degrees from 1999)
--Warwick, R.I.: 102 degrees (97 degrees from 1999)
--Philadelphia, Pa.: 102 degrees (98 degrees from 1999)
--Atlantic City, N.J.: 102 degrees (99 degrees from 1999)
Philadelphia hit 102 degrees for the first time in 15 years Tuesday. It reached 103 degrees on July 15, 1995.
It was the hottest day in Wilmington, Del. since July 10, 1936, when the high was also 103 degrees.
Even in Rhode Island, temperatures reached the highest mark in two decades. In Providence, the last time it reached 102 degrees was July 21, 1991.
Windsor Locks, Conn., not only set a daily record high when temperatures soared to 102 degrees on Tuesday, but also tied its all-time record high.
To further put Tuesday's heat into perspective, consider the fact that the high of 104 degrees in Trenton, N.J., fell one degree shy of the high Phoenix, Ariz., recorded. A high of 105 degrees in Phoenix is typical for this time of year.
Boston, Mass., did not set a new record high on Tuesday despite measuring a high of 100 degrees. Tuesday, however, did mark Boston's first triple-digit reading since August 14, 2002.
Tuesday's temperatures were the hottest so far of this current heat wave across the Northeast. Temperatures have been topping 90 degrees throughout the region since the Fourth of July.
The heat has been blamed on the death of an elderly woman in Philadelphia, Pa., according to CNN.com. The 92-year-old woman had opened a few windows in her home, but did not own an air conditioner.
Excessive energy usage during this heat wave has led to power outages. As many as 9,000 customers lost power on Tuesday in Stamford, Conn.
Commuters in Washington, D.C., experienced another impact of the heat wave. A "heat kink" forced speed restrictions on one stretch of track of the city's Metrorail service.
According to a statement by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, heat kinks form when overheated tracks expand and cannot be constrained by the cross ties and ballast that support the track.
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| Extreme | Location | |
|---|---|---|
| High | N/A | |
| Low | N/A | |
| Precip | N/A |
Northeast (1877)
Inland snowstorm from New Jersey to New England;
4" of snow at Berkshire County, MA.
Newton, NJ (1925)
96 degrees on the 23rd; 39 degrees on the morning
of the 24th.
Abilene, TX (2000)
109 degrees, hottest ever in May.
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